php include

what should I do to be able to php include files (containing my main menu) that are located outside guestbook folder.

I have put
include("menu_top.inc");
to index.php

but then I had to duplicate menu_top.inc in to guestbook dir, which I'd prefer not.

I have tried:

include("../menu_top.inc");
include("./menu_top.inc");
include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/menu_top.inc');

no luck, any help please

Read THIS

Thanks Carbonize, but I actually already managed to successfully customize templates adding "include("menu_top.inc");" line to index.php, comment.php and addentry.php files.

I ask is it possible to have my .inc files in higher level directory, not in main guestbook dir. (e.g. in site root)

You can have your included files anywhere you want you just need to specify the full path for the file such as mnt/user/htdocs/mysite/public_html